Journalist saved from Taliban; translator dies

Afghanistan

Pamela Constable, Washington Post

Published 4:00 am, Thursday, September 10, 2009

Photo: Marko Georgiev, AP

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In this July 16, 2007 photo, Stephen Farrell, a reporter for The New York Times.is shown in Iraq. British commandos freed the New York Times reporter Wednesday Sept. 9, 2009, after he was kidnapped by militants in northern Afghanistan last week, the paper said. Farrell was taken hostage Saturday along with his translator in the northern province of Kunduz when they went to cover a German-ordered airstrike of two hijacked fuel tankers. (AP Photo/The New York Times,Markko Geogiev) MANDATORY CREDIT; NO SALES; NO MAGS less

In this July 16, 2007 photo, Stephen Farrell, a reporter for The New York Times.is shown in Iraq. British commandos freed the New York Times reporter Wednesday Sept. 9, 2009, after he was kidnapped by ... more

Photo: Marko Georgiev, AP

Journalist saved from Taliban; translator dies

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A kidnapped British journalist working for the New York Times was rescued from Taliban captivity Tuesday night, but his Afghan translator was shot dead during a brief and chaotic battle with insurgents.

New York Times and Afghan security officials confirmed that Stephen Farrell, 46, was rescued unharmed when British special forces staged a helicopter gunship raid on a mud compound in a northern Afghan village where he and the translator, Sultan Munadi, were being held. Taliban fighters seized Farrell and Munadi on Saturday as they visited the site of a NATO bombing in northern Kunduz province that, a day earlier, had killed at least 70 insurgents and villagers.

Sources with detailed knowledge of the rescue said that Munadi was shot and killed as he, along with Farrell, tried to run toward the British forces after they landed on the compound roof and engaged Taliban forces with heavy gunfire. The forces departed with Farrell but left Munadi's body lying outside the compound, witnesses said.

British military officials said one of their commandos also was killed. Farrell was flown to the Afghan capital could not be reached for comment. According to the New York Times Web site, he telephoned his editors in New York before dawn, saying, "I'm out! I'm free!"

U.S. toll in Afghanistan

As of Wednesday, at least 742 members of the U.S. military had died in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Uzbekistan as a result of the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in late 2001, according to the Defense Department. The latest deaths reported by the military: